| 20 September 2004 | Monday | 04 Shaban 1425 |
Resolving premium issue
Where's Khanewal forest?
Last week's assassination attempt on President Hamid Karzai near Gardez, where he flew to address an election rally but had to be whisked back to Kabul by his American security staff, can only lend credence to his challengers' contention that the security situation in Afghanistan is far from conducive for holding an election.
Twice postponed before, the presidential election is now scheduled for October 9, despite claims by independent observers that security remains elusive throughout the country, save the capital.
This was the third attempt on Mr Karzai's life in two years - a situation that has seen the Afghan president confined to the safety of his palace in Kabul for the last many months.
The provinces continue to reel under the threats issued by resurgent Taliban and various warlords, who have vowed to disrupt the poll process. Last week's dismissal of the Herat governor by Kabul and the ensuing unrest in that city is but a measure of the situation prevailing in the provinces.
Mr Karzai's hometown Kandahar, which also happened to be the Taliban's stronghold, presents no less serious a security challenge to Kabul. It was in Kandahar that Mr Karzai twice escaped assassination attempts in the last two years.
But none of this can provide any comfort to his 17 challengers, including a sole woman contender; not all of his rivals command a personal militia that would protect them should they venture out to campaign for themselves.
Reports coming from Afghanistan say that the security arrangements made by Kabul and the international community for the poll are woefully inadequate. Some 18,000 US troops based in Afghanistan are busy in their hunt for the remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and their patrols are restricted largely to the areas bordering the Durand Line.
The 8,200-strong Nato-led International Security Assistance Force has barely managed to keep the peace in Kabul and Kunduz, while the warlords and Taliban insurgents have a free run of the field.
Over 1,000 people, including 12 election workers, have so far been target-killed by opponents of the electoral process. Thus, fear among Afghanistan's 11.5 million voters that more violence is in the offing as the election day nears cannot be dismissed.
This is a tragic situation. The October 9 presidential election is an important phase in Afghanistan's transition to democracy, which is the cherished goal of Afghans after years of unstable monarchical or authoritarian rule and the horrendous Taliban interlude.
But elections can be held only under stable conditions and their outcome considered democratic. The international community has failed to do enough to restore peace in Afghanistan and to start the task of reconstruction.
The UN and several humanitarian organizations have been forced to withdraw aid workers from the provinces, if not from the country. How and why there has been a resurgence in Taliban activities is also a question that has not been addressed properly, with the notion of engaging the 'good' Taliban remaining a myth.
If the Bush administration had not embarked on its Iraq adventure and if this were not an election year in America, Afghanistan perhaps would have had a better chance of being back on its feet sooner than later - the elections there could be held under less unsettled conditions. At the moment, the prospects look bleak.
Resolving premium issue
Once again meetings are being held in Islamabad between the government and car producers to solve the problem of premium charged on the sale of new cars. In the past three years, several such meetings have been held for the same purpose but without any positive results.
Car buyers continue to pay extra for prompt delivery of their vehicles despite paying the full purchase price months in advance. The crux of the matter is the inability of the government and the car manufacturers to check the entry of speculators into the market.
They book cars in advance, sometimes in large numbers, and sell them at inflated rates to individual buyers. The artificial demand creates a squeeze in the market. Car makers have also not made a serious effort to check this practice since their sales are assured and they accumulate large amounts in advances from buyers on which they earn interest.
Pakistan's automobile industry has seen a phenomenal rise in demand for cars over the past couple of years. The main reason for this has been a drop in lending rates, which has made car purchase through loans or leasing very popular.
Despite this, local car producers and dealers have not risen to the challenge of manipulation by premium earners. Not enough attention is being paid to raising production and improving quality.
Similarly, the problem of premium being charged on cars or the advance taken against bookings is swept under the carpet. This approach may reap short-term gains but in the longer run it could recoil on the automobile industry. Keeping in mind the interests of both the consumer and the vendor industry, the government needs to intervene and set things right. The sooner this is done, the better for all concerned.
Where's Khanewal forest?
Friday's proceedings of the Punjab Assembly provided some startling information regarding the province's fast-depleting forest cover. It was revealed that 7,000 acres of government land in Khanewal district had been handed over to the army for development as a 'model forest'.
No such thing happened and instead the army cut the trees that were already there and leased out the land to tenants for between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000 per acre. Initially, 500 acres had been sought to construct an ammunition depot.
This demand was then increased to 7,000 acres out of which 5,000 acres were to be developed as a model forest. However, according to the Punjab forest minister, the depot's construction was delayed after which the army leased out the land.
Other than the fact that the army should have been content with its original demand for 500 acres for an ammunition depot, the question that comes to mind is this: if the plan to develop the depot was abandoned for some reason, what rationale was there for it to cut the trees on the other 5,000 acres and lease them out? Also, if the plan to develop the forest proved an unlikely task for it, should it not have returned the land to the provincial government? That way at least the trees could have been saved.
The sub-letting of the land initially obtained for a different purpose and on an understanding that trees there would be preserved could have been avoided. As it is, the country's forest cover is a mere three per cent of its total land area, far lower than the 20-25 per cent considered desirable by ecologists.
That it has come to this dismal level is, unfortunately, only to be expected given the sheer negligence on the part of successive governments to preserve the forests.
Providing forest department officials with wireless sets and small arms to counter illegal felling of trees or initiating half-hearted tree plantation campaigns is all very good but such measures will not amount to much unless the government itself stays away from arrangements such as the one in Khanewal.